Case Study: 5 Strategies to Increase Social Media Ad ROI

DKC
DKC
Jul 22, 2017 · 4 min read
Photo Credit: Peter Amend

By Maya Hutchinson

By 2019, social advertising spend is expected to reach 18.4 billion dollars. That’s a 30% increase over the next two years.

What if we could spend these dollars more effectively?

Here are 5 ways Teva turned social content into paid advertising and increased their ROI.

1. Bridge the Gap

The first step is to make sure your social, advertising and communication teams are talking to each other and working together. Often an intern is put in charge of posting Facebook content and responding to comments and messages, while the Marketing Manager pours tons of money into pre-roll, display, search and mobile ads to reach and retain customers.

Then across the office, the PR team is paying influencers to post about the brand or sponsor an event. What if all these efforts worked together?

When these teams are aligned it becomes easier to ensure that organic content informs your paid content.

2. Audience Modeling

Since your social team is already posting content to a big and constantly growing community, find out who they are. Where are they? What do they like? Where do they read their news? And don’t forget your competitors — take a look at their audiences too.

Gone are the days of one size fits all advertising. You must know your community and talk to them differently.

For instance, 24% of Teva’s engaged social audience likes Coachella Music Festival, and so does 26% of their biggest competitor’s audience.

Use this understanding to drive the ad strategy and reach these sandal loving festival goers who are at Coachella with geo-targeted ads and messages, as well as a broader festival fan base who just wish they could go.

3. Spend to Promote Top-Performing Organic Content

Now that you know your people, it’s time to find the right content for them. Don’t depend on stock photos and boring product shots with white backgrounds to fill your creative needs! Consumers are sick of seeing it, and your social team is definitely not posting them on Instagram (we hope).

Expand your search. Look at content your influencers and consumers are posting, because while your team is white-boarding, they’re creating!

Whether an influencer is documenting their travels…

Photo Credit: Grant Puckett

Or your brand is sponsoring an event…

Pay attention to your content, and use the highest performing posts across both your social channels and your paid advertising campaigns. Teva leveraged both influencer content and brand imagery captured at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival to highlight their product in a better, more engaging way. By aligning the creative you’ll be able to fill your organic content calendar, and leverage it for better ad creative.

4. Something For Everyone = Nothing to Anyone

Just like boring, stock photos, people are sick of generic ad copy. Your social team isn’t posting lists of product names in their Facebook posts, so don’t do it in your ads. Use this space to tell a story that resonates with each audience.

If we have an audience of potential Teva shoppers that will be in Indio the weekend of Coachella, write specific copy to align with both the creative, location, and the target audience.

“Ready for an epic weekend lineup? Step into your festival style no matter what the desert brings.”

Then for those who are not at the event, but are still festival fans. Change the copy: “Are you ready for an epic festival season? Dance through the weekend lineup in style.”

5. Test, Learn and Share

Once organic social content is running in ads, test and learn to see what works. Do ads targeting women outperform those targeting men? Do videos outperform static images? Which influencer drives the highest conversion? Regularly report on the results and present them to the entire team. Everyone from the Head of PR to the Design Associate should have buy in to the process and a clear line of sight into what works and what doesn’t.

DKC is proud to partner with Teva to support ad campaigns during festival season and throughout the year.

DKCommunity

Strategic. Smart. Voted #1 PR agency in New York by Observer.

DKC

Written by

DKC

An independent PR firm defined by a heritage of exceeding expectations, through unrivaled access & unrelenting creativity: Maximizing Return on News™

DKCommunity

Strategic. Smart. Voted #1 PR agency in New York by Observer.

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